Lighting Suggestions

[James Martz]

Looking for some help in lighting. Tank is 120”x30”x24”. Currently have s 60” photon V2 on one side and 48” current marine, 48” reefbrite and 48” aquaticlife edge on the other side.

Mostly fish only, have a few mushrooms and a couple of LPS.

With the current lights, there are shadows all over the tank and the colorations on the fish never really come out.
Current fish list:
Pair Crosshatch Triggers
Pair Dwarf Golden Moray Eels
Harlequin Tusk
Niger Trigger
Durgeon Trigger
Candy Cane Basslet
Two Spot Wrasse
Blue Sided Wrasse
Marine Betta
4 Dispar Anthias
Dussumieri Tang
Vlamingi Tang

Any recommendations to add to current or what to replace with?

 

[hijinks7]

Whats your budget?

 

[skiergd011013]

I absolutely love t5's and have been unhappy with leds when it comes to reefs. If you like t5s, i can help. Otherwise, someone else can chime in.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Whats your budget?

That’s key.


Cheapest will be black boxes. 4-6 16” or a few 30. I’d also just consider looking at another photon.

T5 would be great. You can do that fairly inexpensively. Then you can choose closes you like , more blue or white etc. you could get away with the 48” in and keep the strips to supplement.

 

[[Cameron]]

Do you have a canopy or is this all hanging?

 

[mtraylor]

For fish only. I wouldn't be looking to shell out allot of money on lights. The shrooms and lps will be fine with low lighting. A couple t5's should do the trick or you could simply do some reefbright led
strips on the aquarium. Either or would be inexpensive and give the fish great pop as well as the shrooms and couple lps.

 

[James Martz]

No budget in mind, just want what will work out best. Currently no canopy, everything is sitting on top of tank (I think my wife would kill me if I tried to hang lights).

I don’t dislike T5, just a lot to change out every year.

I definitely need something to supplement the photon, there are dark areas in the front and back of the fixtur when located in the middle of the tank.

 

[jda]

Can you do a retro?

I would get a pair of Icecap/Coravue 420s and a pair of UVL Super Actinics and Actinic Whites - one on each 5 foot side. Just use them until they give out - about three/four years. These have a 2 year life on a reef, not 1 year like T5s. I had an amazing FO with this combo and they had reef color and it grew coralline like crazy (I did keep the N and P fairly low).

T5s come in 60" lengths too, but you might need 4 on each side. Again, I would use these until they burn out - the spectrum shift is not important in a FO tank... and old bulbs do not grow any more algae than new ones since there are plenty of spectrum in new bulbs to grow algae if they have food.